Two academics, Robert George and Shayk Hamza, a Christian and Muslim, respectively, sent a letter to five of the world's largest hotel chains calling for them to stop offering pornography on hotel room TVs.
As George explained, "we believe that despite the lucrative nature of the pornography business, hotel executives, people of good will, can act on conscience and set aside profit for the sake of human dignity."
However, other experts in the field consider this to be a step that has the wrong approach. This is the case of the creator of the page XXXChurch.com, which promotes the fight against the consumption of pornography, Craig Gros.
Gros argues that he agrees with the proposal, but indicates that targeting hotels is an empty gesture.
"This is about money and dollars and that's why it's sold in hotels. So removing pornography from hotels, for me, is not the issue. The thing is, people are consuming pornography," Gros explains.
The initiative sparked mixed opinions, even porn star Ron Jeremy emphasized that many normal adults see this type of material and that religion should not intervene in that detion, "after all one always has the option of not seeing."
Despite the controversy, the American Hotel and Lodging Association defended the right of hotels to choose.
It should be remembered that the Omni Hotel group made the decision to withdraw adult films in 1999. Marriott, for its part, has said that its new hotels will not have this type of entertainment and they hope to implement this initiative by 2013. The Choice Hotels chain leaves the decision to its franchises. Not all those invited to take part in this proposal have responded to the letter.
